The best European culture of 2023
Critics, writers and broadcasters pick their home country’s cultural highlight of 2023, which they hope will find international success in 2024
Tolkien and CS Lewis manuscripts among treasures made available to public in 2023
Spitting Image puppets and Barbara Hepworth works also donated via Acceptance in Lieu and Cultural Gifts schemes
Dr Terror deals the Death card: how tarot was turned into an occult obsession
It was a nice innocent game played by Renaissance courtiers, often featuring strong women. Why were these artistically dazzling cards given a black magic makeover that endures to this day?
The big picture: Oli Kellett’s crossroads and possibilities
The British photographer’s series of painterly images of American street intersections convey a powerful sense of uncertainty
On my radar: Samantha Morton’s cultural highlights
From a gorgeous puppet show venue to a minimal 20th-century church via some Brooklyn jazz, the actor and musician picks her current favourites
A moment that changed me: I stopped speaking at 19 – and found my artistic voice
I was mute for two years because I couldn’t convey my emotions. It helped me discover a new way to express myself
Groundbreaking graphic novel on Gaza rushed back into print 20 years on
When Joe Sacco created Palestine no one knew what ‘comics journalism’ was. Now his pioneering book has eager new readers
Chandler Bing pyjamas, a Shrigley frisbee and Bowie’s scarf: it’s the arts Christmas gift guide 2023
A Bear apron, a Van Gogh vase, a reversible Frida Kahlo jacket, a Britney death metal T-shirt … here, curated by our arts team, are 30 fabulous festive suggestions for the culture vulture in your life
From Kurt to Elvis, JFK and more, what movies did stars see just before they died?
For Franz Kafka, it was The Kid. For Stanley Kubrick, it was the trailer to Eyes Wide Shut. But what about Cobain, Presley and Kennedy? Artist Stanley Schtinter talks us through his revelatory new project
‘Fela Kuti was always in his pants’: legendary music photographer Val Wilmer’s greatest shoots
She ate fried chicken with BB King, gave Jimi Hendrix a lift home from a gig and accidentally worked for MI6. The pioneer recalls her favourite subjects – and the ones like Miles Davis she’d rather forget
‘Wonderful decay’: photos pay tribute to rust and peeling paint of rainy Wales
David Wilson’s new book of images reveals the artistry of objects just about withstanding the elements
On my radar: Carlo Rovelli’s cultural highlights
The physicist and philosopher of science on the lessons the Roman empire holds for us today, the mystery of black holes, and his favourite beat poet
‘Dangerously misguided’: the glaring problem with Thomas Heatherwick’s architectural dreamworld
The designer’s new book Humanise spearheads a campaign excoriating decades of bad building. Has he forgotten his own expensive disasters? Our critic hasn’t
David Shrigley turns 6,000 The Da Vinci Code novels into Nineteen Eighty-Four
Artist creates new edition of Orwell classic after Swansea charity shop had its fill of Dan Brown bestseller
Trippy eagles, vagina wounds, dragon intimacy: how medieval art got weird
A Twitter account of the oddest illustrations from the middle ages has now become a book. Behind these naive drawings, author Olivia M Swarthout says, lie serious truths